The Morton Estates Winery is a wine lover’s dream. Privately owned with the focus on producing only good wine – and some exceptional wine too! The winery’s based at Kati Kati below the Coramandel Peninsular where I lived for a year. Morton own some of the best vineyards in both Hawke’s Bay - the best area for Chardonnay, and Marlborough – the best for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. They are one of the few remaining wineries who take complete control of their own wines from vineyard right through to bottle closure, ensuring top quality every step of the way. They’ve won more awards than the Chinese Olympic Team including ‘Decanter - Best Chardonnay in the World’ and ‘New Zealand Winery of the Year’ amongst others. You can order their wines with confidence that they’re going to be good, or even great!

What’s it like?

Superb, once again. It’s now served in 1st Class on Qatar Airways where it won Qatar the award for the ‘Best 1st Class Red’ at this year’s London Business Travel Show. The best fruit from their Stone Creek vineyard was harvested at the optimum time to produce this delicious wine. Fermented in stainless steel without wood ageing, to preserve the cherry fruit flavours and the slightly earthy notes from the terroir of the particular vineyard. A lovely full wine, smooth and lingering with soft tannins. It’s lovely on it’s own but really shines when you pair it with suitable dishes like roast duck, pork or some sort of game. Highly recommended.

How much? Where can I buy it?

Morton Estates Marlborough Black Label Pinot Noir 2005 is available from www.goodwineonline.co.uk for the very reasonable price of £14.98. That’s cheap for this level of wine!